Independance day holiday clubbed with a long weekend came after a long long wait for almost 4 months. That means it called for a short vacation. On a very short notice, we decided to go to Pune to visit my in laws. Fortunately it was a still longer weekend in MP and Pune as they had an additional holiday for Pathiti. So some more relatives also came to visit Pune. It was more like a family get togather. And that called for a trip togather.
After a lot of discussions we decided to go to Sinhagad fort; gad meaning fort in marathi. This place is famous for trekking. The trek from the base to the top is a very thrilling experience and it takes around 3 hours. But since my 2 year old and also my MIL and FIL were accompaning us, we decided to go by car till the top and then further trek from there. We were a group of 8 people, ranging from all age groups- the 2 year olds to the 60 year olds. We went by 1 car and 1 bike.
The distance from Pune to Sinhagad is around 30 kms and it is around 1 hour drive. We left Pune at around 10 AM and reached Sinhagad at around 11 AM. The initial 20 kms was through the Pune city and the last 10 kms was the uphill ascent to Sinhagad. This was the best time to visit this place in the month of Shravan as it is full of greenary. It felt like the mother earth has worn a green saree :)
The initial 20 kms, I travelled in the car. And the last 10 kms, I travelled by bike togather with my dear hubby and my little daughter. From the bike, we could see the pisturesque view with green green all around, the rocky mounains, the fog and the clouds. As we reached the top, it was getting more misty and looked really serene. Fortunately it did not rain that time. After reaching half the way, my cutie pie refused to wear her jacket and skarf to enjoy the cold breeze that was caressing us.
After reaching the top, we all assembled and we started our trek. At the entrace, there is a huge arc like structure which might be the remains of the fort. This was my guddu's first trek and she was enjoying every bit of it. We trekked for around half an hour and guddu also enjoyed the walk through the rocky hills, the trees, the fog, the vendors selling groundnuts, corn, etc. Since it was a long weekend, it attracted many tourists and the place was fully crowded.
After trekking for about an hour, all of us felt hungry as we had skipped our breakfast. You get this authentic marathi food there. 'Chulivarchi Jwarichi Bhakri' is quite popular in Sinhagad and many people visit this fort to enjoy the bhakri. It is basically Jowar Bhakri prepared on the Chullah and hence it tastes just awesome.
We had garma garam 'Kekda bhaji' for starters. Kekda bhaji is basically onion pakodas prepared with more onion and less besan and hence look like Kekdas or crabs. Thats how they got the name. For main coarse , we had the delicious Pitla-Bhakri served with unlimited Pitla and pickle. . For desserts, we had the mouth-watering 'Matka Dahi' that is the curd served in matkas. We enjoyed the full three coarse meal at the top of Sinhagad. If you happen to visit Sinhagad, do not miss to try all these savouries. While we enjoyed our lunch, Charvi enjoyed her 'Jhula-Jhula'.
Finally after a full tummy, we proceeded further. It was getting more and more misty and windy. At last we reached a view point fron where we could see the beautiful valley. It was playing hide and seek with us as it was covered by the clouds every now and then. There was also remains of a fort like strucure probably that might be the actual gadh or the fort.
We kept trekking further and further passing some small and some big ponds, some majestic arcs, temples. On a way we had the malai kulfi, which was just awesome. In the cold chilling climate, having malai kulfi is just amazing.
Finally we reached the dead end and we had to head back. On our way, suddenly there were heavy showers and we had just 1 umbrella to share among 8 of us and ofcoarse the youngest had the priority. Finally we managed to get shelter in a small hut, which had given shelter to around 50 people. My hubby and brother in law enjoyed the rain standing outside the hut under the small umbrella in the heavy rains. The heavy rains stood much stronger than the umbrella and they both enjoyed getting wet.
Finally after around 10 mins, the rain subsided and we started back. This time the mist and the clouds had disappeared, but the weather had become very cool and the ground was full of running water. We could see mini waterfalls all around. Finally after spending around 4 hours in Sinhagad, we started our journey back home. On our way back, we visited the magnificient Khadakwasla dam.
It was a just a half day trip, but a very memorable one. Even the short trip becomes memorable if you have a good, jovial and a funloving group with you. Thanks to everyone who joined us for making this a wonderful trip. Special thanks to my cutie pie Charvi for making this trip a memorable one for all of us.
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